Jewish Quarter (Jerusalem)

1937 aerial view by Zoltan Kluger

Jewish quarter in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: The two large domes are the Hurva Synagogue (built 1864) and the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue (built 1872), and the minaret belongs to the Sidna Omar Mosque.

The Jewish Quarter (Hebrew: הרובע היהודי, HaRova HaYehudi; Arabic: حارة اليهود, Harat al-Yehud) is one of the four traditional quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem. The area lies in the southwestern sector of the walled city, and stretches from the Zion Gate in the south, along the Armenian Quarter on the west, up to the Street of the Chain in the north and extends to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount in the east.^[1] In the early 20th century the Jewish population of the quarter reached 19,000.^[2]

During the 1948 war, the Jewish Quarter fought the Arab Legion as part of the battle for Jerusalem, and the Hurva synagogue was blown up by Arab legionnaires. On May 1948, the Jewish Quarter surrendered; some Jews were taken captive, and the rest were evacuated. A crowd then systemtically pillaged and razed the quarter.^[3]

After Israel captured East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War, the quarter was earmarked for rehabilitation as a tourist destination and a residential neighborhood, and in the years that followed, a large-scale reconstruction and conservation project was undertaken.^[4] This project included archeological excavations, which uncovered many remains from the First and Second Temple periods, including the Israelite Tower, the Broad Wall, the Burnt House and the Herodian Quarter, along with remains from later periods, such as the Byzantine Cardo and the Nea Church.^[5]^[6]^[7]

As of 2013, the quarter is inhabited by around 3,000 residents and 1,500 students,^[8] and is home to numerous yeshivas and synagogues, most notably the Hurva Synagogue, destroyed numerous times and rededicated in 2010. The quarter is also the site of two historical mosques – the Sidna Omar Mosque and the Al Dissi Mosque – both of which have been closed since the Six-Day War.^[9]

^ Kollek, Teddy (1977). "Afterword". In John Phillips (ed.). A Will to Survive – Israel: the Faces of the Terror 1948-the Faces of Hope Today. Dial Press/James Wade. 28+3⁄4 acres
^ Hattis Rolef, Susan (2000). "The Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem". Architecture of Israel Quarterly. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
^ Morris, Benny (2008). 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press. pp. 218–219. ISBN 978-0-300-14524-3. OCLC 402826490. On 26–27 May, the Legionnaires took the Hurvat Israel (or "Hurva") Synagogue, the quarter's largest and most sacred building, and then, without reason, blew it up. "This affair will rankle for generations in the heart of world Jewry," predicted one Foreign Office official. [...] The Legionnaires took prisoner 290 healthy males, aged fifteen to fifty—two-thirds of them, in fact, noncombatants—and fifty-one of the wounded. The other wounded and twelve hundred inhabitants were accompanied by the Legionnaires to Zion Gate and freed. The quarter was then systematically pillaged and razed by the mob. The fall of the Jewish Quarter, an important national site, dealt a severe blow to Yishuv morale
^ Slae, Bracha; Kark, Ruth; Shoval, Noam (2012). "Post-war reconstruction and conservation of the historic Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem, 1967–1975". Planning Perspectives. 27 (3): 369–392. doi:10.1080/02665433.2012.681138. ISSN 0266-5433. S2CID 143835754.
^ Geva, H. (2006). The Settlement on the Southwestern Hill of Jerusalem at the End of the Iron Age: A Reconstruction Based on the Archaeological Evidence. Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins (1953-), (H. 2), 140-150.
^ Avigad, N. (1970). Excavations in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, 1970 (Second Preliminary Report). Israel Exploration Journal, 129-140.
^ Raphael, K. (2015). Jerusalem, The Jewish Quarter. Hadashot Arkheologiyot: Excavations and Surveys in Israel/חדשות ארכיאולוגיות: חפירות וסקרים בישראל.
^ "Demography in Jerusalem's Old City". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2023-07-10.
^ TPS, Baruch Yedid /. "Jordan Reopening Mosque Adjacent to Hurva Synagogue in Heart of Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter". Retrieved 2022-12-20.

[1] Kollek, Teddy (1977). "Afterword". In John Phillips (ed.). A Will to Survive – Israel: the Faces of the Terror 1948-the Faces of Hope Today. Dial Press/James Wade. 28+3⁄4 acres

[AIQ-2] Hattis Rolef, Susan (2000). "The Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem". Architecture of Israel Quarterly. Retrieved 2007-12-26.

[3] Morris, Benny (2008). 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press. pp. 218–219. ISBN 978-0-300-14524-3. OCLC 402826490. On 26–27 May, the Legionnaires took the Hurvat Israel (or "Hurva") Synagogue, the quarter's largest and most sacred building, and then, without reason, blew it up. "This affair will rankle for generations in the heart of world Jewry," predicted one Foreign Office official. [...] The Legionnaires took prisoner 290 healthy males, aged fifteen to fifty—two-thirds of them, in fact, noncombatants—and fifty-one of the wounded. The other wounded and twelve hundred inhabitants were accompanied by the Legionnaires to Zion Gate and freed. The quarter was then systematically pillaged and razed by the mob. The fall of the Jewish Quarter, an important national site, dealt a severe blow to Yishuv morale

[4] Slae, Bracha; Kark, Ruth; Shoval, Noam (2012). "Post-war reconstruction and conservation of the historic Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem, 1967–1975". Planning Perspectives. 27 (3): 369–392. doi:10.1080/02665433.2012.681138. ISSN 0266-5433. S2CID 143835754.

[5] Geva, H. (2006). The Settlement on the Southwestern Hill of Jerusalem at the End of the Iron Age: A Reconstruction Based on the Archaeological Evidence. Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins (1953-), (H. 2), 140-150.

[6] Avigad, N. (1970). Excavations in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, 1970 (Second Preliminary Report). Israel Exploration Journal, 129-140.

[7] Raphael, K. (2015). Jerusalem, The Jewish Quarter. Hadashot Arkheologiyot: Excavations and Surveys in Israel/חדשות ארכיאולוגיות: חפירות וסקרים בישראל.

[8] "Demography in Jerusalem's Old City". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2023-07-10.

[9] TPS, Baruch Yedid /. "Jordan Reopening Mosque Adjacent to Hurva Synagogue in Heart of Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter". Retrieved 2022-12-20.

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